I started the read as research for a project, but halfway in approached it as leisure reading. The personalities involved in the race to break the code, the unorthodox methods that Crick and Watson applied, and the dynamics of the scientific development (or MISdevelopment) that led to the discovery are all intriguing for the average science buff.

Paul Strathern, author of the outstanding Philosophers in 90 Minutes series, hits the mark once more in a series about scientists. In this work, he gives the reader a comprehensive yet brief overview of Stephen Hawking's life & works. Strathern, as usual, is entertaining, informative & funny. Strathern cuts through the vernacular & brings the subject matter in plain, direct language. This book is definately a winner!

I have made a point of reading each book in Paul Strathern's "--in 90 Minutes" series on philosphers and thinkers as they have been published. His slender volume on Karl Marx represents Strathern at his ironically informed best. Solid information presented with insight and humor. I cannot imagine a better starting point for an introduction to Marx and Marxism. Highly readable.

Anyone who attempts to make philosophy accessible to non-academics certainly has the tip of my hat, but DESCARTES IN 90 MINUTES sacrifices too much substance in the interest of readability. This book would be OK for a high school student preparing a short paper or presentation on French philosopher/mathematician Rene Descarte, but for those of us who are motivated by anything more than casual curiosity about philosophers will be left unsatisfied.

I did learn quite a few facts from this very clearly-written book, such as Descarte's odd sleeping habits, his apparent facility in composing musical verse, and his compulsive wanderlust. The problem is that biographies of Great Thinkers just don't have a lot of impact without including some exposition of their Great Thoughts. "I think, therefore I am," is about as deep as it gets here.

Starthern's goal is to provide a quick, flawless guide to the major thinkers of the world: I'm unclear as to whether he succeeded or not. I suppose he succeeds simply because he has published these works, people buy them, and they are quite popular. I am not a stickler for erudition, I would have like to have learned from this series, but there just isn't enough information on the philosopher's work. If you're in a philosophy class and want to get a quick preview of what you're going to learn, chances are you will find more or less the same information in the introduction of your text. If you just want to learn on your own, it's your decision as to what you're looking for. For example, this is what I learned about Descartes from this book:

1) He was an eccentric who liked to sleep in 2) His theories on mathmatics were contraversial 3) He believes that we exist simply because we think 4) He died for a silly reason.

That's it folks. #2 & 3 may seem exciting, but there is no explanation as to why or how these manifests themself.

Strathern is a master at this kind of work, which mixes biography, critical analysis, historical context and humor all in a concise, informative & entertaining package. He lists a time line for the philosopher, his place in world/philosophic history & a selection of works for furthur reading. This series of books by Strathern is a wonderful course in Philosophy 101 without ever having to go to college, all presented in plain, easy to understand English without being bogged down with philosophy's often confusing vernacular.

More biographical like most of the series. As regards Greeks philosphers that isnt too bad... entertaining book... but dont expect to come out of it much more "enlightened".

This book will give anyone a better idea of Plato's life, time, ideas, and work. Although Strathern does not reflect on the concepts and work of Plato to an extent of understanding his actual Philosophy, but he rather briefly gives quotes and hints as to provide a basic overview of his outlook on the world in general. If Strathern was in fact to give a more comprehensive account of the ideas and work of Plato the whole point of compacting Plato's life into a "90 minute" book would be gone. I myself had a very minute understanding of the man Plato. But from reading this book I found a lot of useful information that broadened my knowledge of the life and times of Plato. In reading this book you will meet some people that changed Plato's life, aswell as the treasured wisdom Plato handed to many individuals and to the whole of society. So for the amount of time it takes to read the book in contrast with the valuable information accessible, I give this book four stars.

This book is not, and was not meant to be, an in-depth analysis of the philosophy of Plato. It is a very brief overview of his life and works. I really appreciated the subtle humour which made the book fun to read.

I enjoyed navigating through this book and found it useful. The book gave me ideas and hints to make my trip more enjoyable

I was very interested in reading more about Confucius after reading "Socrates, Buddha, Confucius, Jesus" by Karl Jaspers. Strathern's brief book reinforced some of what Jaspers said, but with much easier language. This book won't tell you a lot about Confucius and his teachings, but will let you know if you want to do any more reading. I liked his recommendation of Arthur Waley's translation of "The Analects." I do wish he had given just a little more recommended reading. He didn't suggest "The Wisdom of Confucius" by Lin Yutang, but I recommend it. This "90 minute" book is a light, quick read, which suited me at the time. Now I want to read more about Confucius (the Lin Yutang book). I like the 90 minute series and intend to read more of these volumes. Modern business just doesn't give you the luxury of time to read about philosophy. So for authors that I'm not sure I want to spend much time on, the 90 minute series is great. Strathern is a clever man. He didn't just write a book. He created a product line with a recognizable "90 minute" brand label!

While I did enjoy reading this book, I found its subtitle, "Quest for the Elements," rather misleading. It IS a fascinating history of all science from the perspective of chemistry. After the prologue, however, elements are not mentioned again until page 178 out of 294, at the end of Chapter 7, and not discussed in any detail until chapter 8. I was disappointed because the subtitle and the dust jacket led me to expect more focus on the history of chemistry itself, rather than ancient the Greeks and Arabs who preceeded chemists, or the polical and social intruigues surrounding men who had minimal impact on the science. If you are expecting a book about the discovery of elements or the impact of the periodic table, this is NOT it. Paul Strathern and/or his publishers should have come up with a more appropriate title. I am a PhD chemist who loves to read, and I have found that my science is severly underrepresented in the popular literature (both books and magazines). This book does not help to fill the void.

Who among us can't recall, at least in a general way, the first day of high school chemistry when we were first confronted with that mysterious Periodic Table of the Elements hanging on the wall? Now, as ignorant novices in Chem 1A, we were at last to be initiated into its arcane symbolism.

MENDELEYEV'S DREAM is the story of chemistry, from the ancient Greek, Anaximenes, with his theory of air as the fundamental element compressible to water and stone, to the gnomic Russian genius, Mendeleyev, who conceived the Periodic Table in the mid-19th century. Conceived it in a dream during an exhausted sleep brought on by overwork and frustrated creativity. Sleeping, when he should have been on his way to address a meeting of local cheese-makers.

The author, Paul Strathern, has written a fine narrative overview of the evolution of the scientific method and the chemist's art, from the philosophical musings of the ancients on the nature of the universe, through the long centuries when alchemy held sway, to chemistry's current place in the Pantheon of Sciences. Along the way, Strathern introduces us to the greatest scientific minds and gifted eccentrics of their respective ages: Empedocles, Aristotle, Zosimus, Jabir ibn-Hayyan, Avicenna, Paracelsus, Nicholas of Cusa, Galileo, Descartes, Francis Bacon, van Helmont, Robert Boyle, Hennig Brand, Karl Scheele, Johann Becher, Henry Cavendish, Joseph Priestley, Antoine Lavoisier, John Dalton, Jöns Berzelius, and a host of others. And, finally, Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleyev.

The nature of the book's subject could easily lend itself to tedium, but the author's style is light - only once does he "balance" a chemical formula, and his intermittent dry wit was much appreciated. What, for instance, was Hennig Brand doing with those fifty buckets of putrefying human urine? His neighbors were undoubtedly not thrilled. And why might the Dutch Assembly have been justified in tacking-up "wanted-posters" around town for Johann Becher, who had just absconded on a fast boat for London?

A scientist himself, Paul has not penned a great technical piece. Rather, he's written an uncomplicated, engaging work of popular science likely to appeal to those of us who ... well, let's just say, didn't learn to transmute lead into gold, much less ace Chem 1A. Now, if someone could just do the same for differential calculus.

Despite its title, this book actually has rather little to do with Mendeleev (or Mendeleyev, which is the transliteration favored by the author). He appears in the Prologue as a "gnomic figure seated at a vast littered desk," but disappears in the first sentence of the first chapter, eventually reappearing for the denouement in the book's two final chapters. The 250 pages in between are in a sense primarily an interlude to Mendeleev's periodic table as the triumphant solution to the 25-century "quest for the elements." That the book presents the solution as emerging from a dream is unfortunately evocative of another dream in the city of Ghent a few years before Mendeleev's in St. Petersburg.
Even before I began to read Mendeleyev's Dream, however, I felt apprehensive. The list of other books by the author Paul Strathern suggests that he tackles big topics, which are too often sketched in broad penstrokes and treated superficially. Two more of his titles on the inside back of the dust jacket-The Big Idea: Scientists Who Changed the World and Philosophers in 90 Minutes-cemented my uneasiness.
The blurb on the inside front of the dust jacket claims that the author "unravels the dramatic history of chemistry through the quest for the elements." That's a tall order for such a short book (less than 300 pages of text), all the more since the quest for the elements represents only one aspect-albeit a central aspect-of chemistry's expansive and complex history.
Mendeleyev's Dream begins where natural philosophy traditionally begins, with Thales of Miletus. We are taken on a short tour through the rational thought of the great Ancient Greek philosophers and mathematicians before moving on to alchemy, which, despite its "mixed motives" and foolish aims, was nevertheless "the practice which was to give us chemistry." While that is certainly an essential part of chemistry's origins, it overlooks connections to the even older craft traditions, such as dyeing, mining, smelting, and metalworking.
After a visit with Paracelsus and iatrochemistry, the book makes a detour through the beginnings of the scientific revolution. According to the author, this demonstrates the change in thinking necessary to escape such shackles as the four elements, which he terms "one of the biggest blunders in human thought." The story then skips along the alpine peaks of events and colorful personalities in the history of chemistry from van Helmont and Boyle to Newlands and Mendeleev. It's a most entertaining story, and this is the level at which the book is most successful. There are many interesting episodes and anecdotes, and I especially enjoyed the sections on Hennig Brand and the discovery of phosphorus and on the many discoveries of Karl Scheele, who unfortunately received little credit for any of them.
This book is a popular account for the general reader, and the author offers this as his reason for the lack of citations. Consequently, those who know something of chemistry and its history are likely to have a number of quibbles with the author. I certainly do. In addition, I want to offer a significant quibble on behalf of general readers who would not be able to do so themselves. The author proceeds on the premise that past ideas and concepts are worthwhile only insofar as they point toward today's ideas and concepts. I believe that this is a distorted view of the history of science and that it gives general readers significant misconceptions about the movement of science, which sometimes represents progress, but often doesn't.
As far back as Ancient Greece, the atomic theory of Leucippus and Democritus appears "breathtakingly modern-far, far ahead of [its] time," whereas Aristotle's compounding of errors "put human intellectual thought on the wrong course for centuries to come." By the time that Johann Döbereiner proposed his law of triads in the 1830s, "chemistry had suffered enough from mistaken theories . . . The way forward now lay through experiment." This hardly suggests the increasingly complex interplay between theory and experiment in chemistry since the mid 19th century.
The author tells us that the ancients knew of nine genuine elements and that three more were discovered in the late Middle Ages. However, "their discoverers did not see them as such, because they didn't know what an element was." I would contend that ancient and medieval natural philosophers knew what an element was as well as we do. It's just that their concept doesn't coincide with ours. But for the author of Mendeleyev's Dream, that means not knowing.
This same attitude about the past as seen from the vantage point of the present appears in various claims and statements scattered through the book. "Separating truth from legend is always easy afterwards, when we can apply modern criteria." "At least half of Newton's intellectual life was wasted on nonscientific pursuits." "The idea of a feminine metal was evidently anathema to the Victorian English scientific establishment. This was to be the start of a distressing trend. All elements discovered since 1839 . . . have been given the Latin neuter ending -ium, or the Greek neuter -on in the case of the inert gases. This sexless nomenclature was even extended to curium, which was named after Madame Curie. . . . This choice of gender was presumably made with no conscious derogatory intent, but one can't help feeling that it says something about the predominantly male society of chemists."
While conveniently omitting any mention of elements such as mendelevium, the author doesn't mind telling us something about a few of the male members of the Royal Society. Newton's celibacy ensured "that he didn't have to admit his repressed homosexual inclinations even to himself," yet he was able to impress their "effect on the scientific world at large." In addition, his presidency of the Royal Society enshrined in it the misogyny that Robert Hooke had previously encouraged. I fail to see the relevance of these gibes, which seem to be included for no other reason than being politically correct. They're minor, but they detract from the book.
Unfortunately, these minor detractions, along with the author's attitudes about scientific progress, are a major flaw in his entertaining and panoramic sketch of the quest for the elements. While I enjoyed the author's lively story, I did not find this a satisfying book. Ultimately, I must conclude that it is flawed both for those who know something of chemistry and its history, as well as for its intended audience, those who don't.

It is impossible to understand Machiavelli in 90 minutes, or even 90 days, though I have no doubt that books like this sell. Still, unsuspecting students who really want to learn something should beware. There are no good short cuts for stuff this difficult, and this is worse than a bad shortcut--it's downright misleading.

Paul Strathern does a good job of providing a very useful description of the historical and biographical context of Machiavelli's works. Without this kind of background, those who attempt to read Machiavelli's most famous work, THE PRINCE, will find their efforts to be frustrating and futile. Strathern's little book is best seen as a useful adjunct to and preparation for Machiavelli's works, not as a kind of CLIFF'S NOTES which provides a systematic delineation of his contribution to political thought (although Strathern does help the reader to understand Machiavelli's view of political theory "as a kind of science independent of morals"). Strathern offers a good contribution with his brief comparison and contrast of Machiavelli's THE PRINCE and DISCOURSES ON LIVY, alerting the reader to the more temperate and considered contribution to political theory provided by the latter work. As Strathern notes, in THE PRINCE, Machiavelli writes from the ruler's point of view, providing guidance for the ruthless consolidation of power. However, in DISCOURSES, he writes from the citizens' point of view, giving them advice on how to run things, "especially how to achieve freedom within the state." In relation to the latter, Strathern cites Machiavelli's seemingly out-of-character assertion that "people are more prudent, more stable, and have better judgment than a prince." All in all, Strathern writes clearly and engagingly, although he tends to indulge in a bit of historical gossip (e.g., his discussion of Cesare Borgia's sister, Lucrezia, daughter of Pope Alessandro VI). In sum, this book is useful as an introduction to Machiavelli's contributions, but is not an adequate substitution for a reading of Machiavelli's works.

I'm perplexed by the people who write angrily about the "90 Minutes" series because they are disappointed not to find a serious, in depth treatment of the works of these philosophers. The books obviously don't purport to be anything but what they are: an entertaining, high level view of basic concepts and life history.
The author shows in this book how Machiavelli's life and times may have affected his writings. I have other books that delve into Machiavelli's philosophy, but none of them mention his personal circumstances and history, which surely would affect his writing and philosophy. These books are good in that they put these great thinkers in a social and historical context which many books fail to do.
I enjoyed the books I've read by this author a great deal.

Glib and condescending. The writer seems unwilling or perhaps just unable to come to terms with Wittgenstein's thought, so the whole book is nothing more than a series of snipes and jabs at Wittgenstein and his philosophy. When the author cannot come to terms with Wittgenstein's post-Tractatus thought, he simply dismisses it as bad philosophy. This is second-rate journalism, and gives innocent readers nothing intellectual to feed upon. I am disgusted that someone with such an obvious axe to grind regarding this particular philosopher, should be given the job of providing an overview of Wittgenstein's thought and genius. Well, I guess it takes one to know one. As Albert Einstein once said: "Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds."
Get Monk's bio for a real depiction of the philosopher, one that actually comes to grip with his thought.
Don't waste your time on this book. Unless you need something to line the bottom of your birdcage.

I must have misunderstood the title -- I thought it meant that you could read the book in 90 minutes, not that it had been written in 90 minutes. The biographical sketch is fine, and a bit entertaining, though Strathern too often goes in for easy sarcasm and makes too many jokes at the expense of his subject. But his pretension to have dealt in any way whatsoever with Wittgenstein's thought is simply outrageous. There are in total about 7 pages devoted to Wittgenstein's work, which do not even provide the barest bones of the beginnings of the glimmerings of an understanding of this profound and difficult thinker. In this age, of course, the idea that one can attain a deep comprehension of a difficult topic with almost no effort is almost irresistible; but I fear greatly that this glib and shallow work will make people who might well have enjoyed reading Wittgenstein feel that they no longer need to. Of course, if all you are interested in is being able to drop the name of a famous philosopher at cocktail parties, this may be the book for you.

Strathern has a real gift for "putting the cookies on the lowest shelf." Unfortunately, with a thinker of the complexity of Wittgenstein, that can often lead to shallowness. This book suffers more from its narrowness of scope, though. While its biographical aspects are complete, its description of Wittgenstein's philosophy focuses almost entirely on the Tractatus, only mentioning briefly his later developments of linguistic theory, which more than anything else he produced has influenced postmodernism. In fact, I don't recall ever seeing the term "language game" used in the book! Nevertheless, because the book requires such a minimal investment of time, it is probably a good place to start. Just don't end there.